Chapter 593: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: The Sun vs The Gun V

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Numerous explosions erupted across the arena as the Golden Flame Slashes crashed into the ground and the force field.

The explosions spread across different sections of the battlefield, sending waves of heat and wind through the arena.

Even though the spectators knew the force field was protecting them, many still flinched or instinctively moved backward whenever one of the Golden Flame Slashes struck close to their side of the barrier.

Some children covered their ears.

Others gripped the railings in front of them while staring at the battlefield with wide eyes.

The fight had already reached a point where simply watching it was exhausting.

On the platform, Ezra continued weaving through the Golden Flame Slashes while maneuvering the remaining QF 13-pounders around him.

The seventeen artillery guns moved with him.

Their large wheels rolled across the platform while their heavy bodies shifted from one direction to another under Ezra's Alchemy Levitation.

Every time Maxwell sent a Golden Flame Slash toward one of them, Ezra changed its path.

A QF 13-pounder moved several feet to the side.

Another turned its wheels sharply.

A third slowed down just enough for a Golden Flame Slash to pass over its barrel.

The attacks continued coming.

Maxwell remained near the center of the formation.

His feet moved across the damaged platform as he swung the Sun Blade rapidly in different directions.

Golden light flashed every time the weapon moved.

A slash would leave the blade.

Then another would follow.

The first would crash into the ground while the second passed between two artillery guns.

Ezra kept moving.

His black eyes constantly shifted between Maxwell, the Golden Flame Slashes, and the seventeen artillery guns surrounding him.

He was calculating.

Not just Maxwell's current position.

The timing of Maxwell's attacks.

The distance between the artillery guns.

The paths of the Golden Flame Slashes.

The time it would take for each QF 13-pounder to turn.

And, most importantly, the small opening he needed.

He needed only one.

One moment.

One clean chance to aim every artillery gun at Maxwell.

Ezra had already surrounded him with the remaining low-tier artillery.

Now he needed to make them fire.

The problem was Maxwell was not standing still.

The moment Ezra moved the artillery guns into a firing position, Maxwell could destroy them.

And the Golden Flame Slashes were already coming from different directions.

Ezra couldn't simply stop and aim.

He had to move everything at the same time.

His body.

The artillery.

The ammunition.

And his own position.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

He continued watching.

Maxwell raised the Sun Blade.

The weapon moved.

A Golden Flame Slash shot toward Ezra.

Ezra shifted his body and guided one of the QF 13-pounders away from the attack.

The slash passed close enough to cut through a small portion of its metal body.

Another slash came from the opposite side.

Ezra moved another artillery gun.

Then another.

He kept waiting.

His mind continued recording Maxwell's movements.

Then he saw it.

The moment Maxwell's hand came down for another sword slash after launching a Golden Flame Slash toward him.

That was it.

The opening.

It was extremely small.

The timing had to be accurate.

There were still numerous Golden Flame Slashes moving toward Ezra and the seventeen QF 13-pounders from different angles.

If he mistimed it, several of the artillery guns could be destroyed before they even fired.

But Ezra moved anyway.

He used the same movement that allowed the artillery guns to evade the incoming attacks.

All seventeen QF 13-pounders shifted.

Their wheels turned.

Their barrels rotated.

The formation changed.

Instead of spreading around Maxwell, they began turning toward the center.

Toward him.

Several Golden Flame Slashes passed within inches of the artillery guns.

One barely missed the barrel of a QF 13-pounder.

Another grazed the side of one of the artillery guns.

A clean section of metal was sliced away.

Yet Ezra's control did not break.

His Cognis continued flowing.

His hands remained steady.

The seventeen QF 13-pounders completed their movements.

All of them were aimed at Maxwell.

Fully loaded.

Ready to fire.

And all of this happened almost at the exact moment Maxwell completed his vertical downward slash.

The Sun Blade reached the bottom of its swing.

Then…

Whoosh!

The Golden Flame Slash shot out.

At the same time…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Ezra fired all seventeen QF 13-pounders.

The platform shook violently.

The seventeen 13-pound shells shot forward at once.

All of them moved toward the same center.

Maxwell.

For a moment, the battlefield seemed to contain two opposing forces.

A Golden Flame Slash coming from Maxwell.

Seventeen heavy artillery shells coming from Ezra.

The distance between them disappeared rapidly.

Maxwell sensed the heat wave approaching.

He also heard the violent pressure of the air being pushed aside by the incoming shells.

His expression changed.

His right boot slammed into the ground.

THUD!!!

The platform beneath him cracked heavily.

Maxwell gripped his Sun Blade with both hands and held it tightly at his right side.

More Cognis poured into the weapon.

The golden Cognis inside the blade became denser.

The flames surrounding it grew brighter.

The Sun Blade began to extend.

Its length increased as more Golden Flames gathered around the weapon.

Hot steam flowed violently from Maxwell's position.

The snow falling around him melted.

The remaining moisture on the platform began turning into steam.

The pressure created by his stance caused the ground beneath him to shake.

Maxwell's muscles tightened.

His eyes remained fixed on the incoming shells.

They were getting closer.

Closer.

Closer.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Maxwell swung.

His body rotated.

The Sun Blade swept horizontally toward his left.

A fully circular Golden Flame Slash burst from the weapon.

For an instant, the bright golden light around Maxwell seemed to be pulled into the attack.

Then the circular slash shot outward.

Its brightness dimmed slightly as it expanded through the air, but the pressure and heat coming from it remained immense.

The seventeen 13-pound shells reached it.

The first shell collided with the circular slash.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

The explosion erupted at the same moment the circular Golden Flame Slash sliced through the artillery barrage.

One shell disappeared.

Then another.

Then another.

The circular slash continued cutting through all seventeen shells.

Explosions filled the space around Maxwell.

The smoke spread outward.

The pressure from the blast pushed loose debris across the platform.

But the attack did not stop.

It continued expanding through the air.

And its next target was Ezra.

Ezra's plain black eyes reflected the incoming Golden Flame Slash.

He immediately moved.

His first thought was to go underneath the attack.

But his eyes shifted toward the remaining QF 13-pounders.

If he went underneath the slash, the artillery guns would be exposed, and the circular attack could cut through them.

So, Ezra changed his movement.

Since there was another way.

And, more importantly, that movement could help him with his next attack.

Cognis flowed through his Stars.

The Cognis entered his veins and moved through his body.

It passed through his stomach before flowing into his legs.

His leg muscles strengthened.

His bones and tissues were reinforced.

At the same time, Cognis traveled through his upper arms and forearms before entering his hands.

The Cognis emerged from his palms and flowed into the circuit system of his black gloves.

The circuits lit up white.

White Cognis filled them like water flowing through a network of pipes.

The black gloves responded.

Ezra's eyes remained fixed on the incoming circular Golden Flame Slash.

The moment the Cognis completely filled the circuit system…

Several black threads extended from the gloves.

They loosened from his hands and shot outward.

As the threads moved, they revealed the black heat-simulating bandage tape wrapped around Ezra's hands and extending up his arms.

The tape continued around his chest, stopping around his ribs.

Another set of tape was wrapped around his legs, reaching up to his knees.

The black threads moved rapidly through the air.

Ezra activated the Repel Magnetic function of the Black Magnetic Gloves.

The magnetic force pushed the threads forward.

At the same time, Ezra jumped.

His enhanced leg strength launched his body into the air.

The seventeen QF 13-pounders were still surrounding Maxwell below him.

The black threads reached them.

One after another, the threads touched the metallic bodies of the artillery guns.

Ezra activated the polarity lock function.

The black threads immediately attached themselves to the QF 13-pounders.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

The threads connected to all seventeen artillery guns.

Ezra then activated the Attraction Magnetic function of the Black Magnetic Gloves.

Seventeen black threads were now held between both of his hands.

Each thread was connected to one of the QF 13-pounders.

Ezra pulled.

The magnetic force responded.

At the same time, he used Alchemy Levitation to assist the movement of the heavy artillery guns.

The seventeen QF 13-pounders began rising.

Ezra rose with them.

The entire formation shot upward.

A massive gust of wind erupted beneath them.

Loose rocks were blown across the platform.

Steam was pushed aside.

Melted snow water scattered through the air.

The force field surrounding the battlefield rippled as the pressure from the movement spread outward.

And all of it happened quickly enough.

Just quickly enough.

The circular Golden Flame Slash passed beneath Ezra and the seventeen QF 13-pounders.

It missed them.

Ezra had escaped.

Maxwell's golden eyes widened slightly.

He had expected Ezra to evade.

But not like this.

An Adept Alchemist had just moved himself and seventeen heavy artillery guns into the air while using Alchemy Levitation and the magnetic functions of his gloves to control the entire formation.

And he had done it while avoiding a large-scale Golden Flame attack.

The level of speed was one thing.

The precision was another.

Maxwell looked upward.

Ezra was already high above the platform.

The afternoon sun shone brightly behind him.

Seventeen QF 13-pounders floated around him.

The remaining 13-pound shells were also suspended nearby.

For a brief moment, Maxwell simply stared.

"What?"

The word escaped him before he could stop it.

He could not help muttering in disbelief at what he was seeing.

But Ezra wasn't done yet.

"Ahhhh!!"

Ezra gritted his teeth.

His arms tightened.

His shoulders shifted as he pulled on all seventeen black threads.

The QF 13-pounders moved with him.

Ezra rotated his body horizontally.

The seventeen artillery guns followed.

The rotation became faster.

His arm muscles tightened as he maintained control over every thread.

A large gust of wind erupted from the movement.

It spread across the fight area.

Hot steam was blown away.

Loose broken rocks were swept aside.

Falling snow was scattered.

Snow water that had melted from the rising heat of Maxwell's Alchemy was thrown through the air before being carried away by the wind.

For a moment, the entire fight area seemed to revolve around Ezra's movement.

The artillery guns rotated around him.

The black threads remained stretched between his hands and the weapons.

The remaining ammunition stayed suspended nearby.

Ezra's Cognis continued flowing.

He pushed more power into the Black Magnetic Gloves.

"AHH!!"

Ezra shouted.

The QF 13-pounders rotated again, then he began reloading them.

All seventeen.

At the same time.

And then…

CLANK!!!

All seventeen breeches slammed shut together.

The 13-pound shells had been loaded.

The sound echoed through the arena.

Seventeen artillery guns.

Seventeen loaded shells.

All of them suspended in the air.

All of them moved rotationally under Ezra's control.

Maxwell's golden eyes locked onto Ezra.

His perception of time seemed to slow.

He watched the entire sequence.

Ezra had jumped.

He had activated the black threads.

He had used the magnetic functions.

He had attached the threads to all seventeen QF 13-pounders.

He had lifted them into the air with Alchemy Levitation and magnetic attraction.

He had rotated his body.

He had rotated the artillery formation.

He had reloaded all seventeen weapons.

And now…

He was aiming them at Maxwell.

The formation began to line up.

The first QF 13-pounder rotated toward Maxwell.

It was ready.

The next artillery gun followed.

Then another.

Then another.

They were positioned so that the first would fire when it reached Maxwell's direction, followed almost immediately by the next.

Then the next.

Then the next.

A repeated cycle of artillery fire.

One after another.

But because Ezra was controlling all seventeen weapons at once, the delay between each shot would be almost nonexistent.

From Maxwell's perspective, the entire sequence had happened in less than a second.

His eyes remained fixed on Ezra.

The seventeen QF 13-pounders floated around him like a strange metallic formation, each one slowly aligning with his position.

The afternoon sunlight reflected from their metal bodies.

The black threads remained connected to them.

Ezra hovered in the air at the center of the formation.

His face was still plain.

His breathing was heavier than before, but his eyes showed no hesitation.

Maxwell stared at him.

For the first time since the fight had begun, the excitement in his expression was mixed with genuine disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me."

Maxwell muttered unconsciously.

Below him, the battlefield was still steaming.

Above him, seventeen artillery guns were now aimed directly at him in a rotational motion.

And Ezra was already preparing to fire.